Seat belt usage on the rise

Noel Hendrickson/Thinkstock ImagesMost of us are wearing our seat belts while in the car.

Nearly six in seven U.S. adults now wear seat belts, an increase in driver safety that health officials say has helped cut motor vehicle deaths and injuries.

About 85 percent of adults said they wear seat belts in a 2008 survey, up from under 81 percent in 2002. Only 11 percent wore them in 1982, before the first state law requiring seat belt use. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reported a decline of more than 15 percent in non-fatal vehicle crash injuries from 2001 to 2009. The government previously reported traffic fatalities fell in 2009 to 33,808, the lowest number since 1950.